Dementia is an issue that many senior citizens will have to contend with when planning for retirement. This column addresses the concern about what would happen if a surviving spouse has dementia and is not legally competent enough to be able to roll over an inherited IRA into their own IRA. “IRS regulations specify that the spousal election to treat an IRA inherited from the deceased spouse as the surviving spouse’s own IRA may not be made until after the death of the first spouse.” Many IRA custodians will not permit a participant to name a “successor beneficiary” because the primary beneficiary owns the inherited IRA absolutely. This column discuss different plans that people can adopt to deal with a potential anticipated mental disability. When developing a plan it is important to get help from an experienced estate planner who can provide more personalized assistance.
See Natalie Choate, Planning for the Dementia Factor in Retirement, Morningstar, December 12, 2015.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
